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Tobacco, golf course, amphitheater were key issues in ë02Posted: 12/27/02 by John Gessner Three years of amphitheater wars inched toward a conclusion in 2002 as the city of Burnsville survived court challenges brought by opponents of the controversial riverfront project. Other stories emerged as the proposed Black Dog Amphitheater began to take a back seat. Ground was finally broken on the Heart of the City redevelopment project. Under construction are the mixed-use Grand Market Place development and a new Red Lion Liquor store. The Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District enacted $5 million in budget cuts and fee hikes after the failure of its Nov. 2001 levy referendum (see related story). The district passed a nearly identical levy proposal in November. With news that Orchard Gardens Golf Course could be sold and turned into houses, a citizen movement sprang up to save the nine-hole course, a southwest Burnsville landmark. The Nov. 5 election brought a new member, Teresa Daly, to the City Council. It put Rep. Tim Pawlenty, R-Eagan, whose district included part of Burnsville, into the governorís office. With him will go Rep. and former Mayor Dan McElroy, R-Burnsville, who will be Pawlentyís finance commissioner. And the city imposed a walloping penalty on a SuperAmerica store that was repeatedly caught selling cigarettes to minors. The storeís parent company sued, and the penalty was later reduced. Hereís a month-by-month recap of news highlights from the pages of Burnsville Thisweek. January Les Anderson, the cityís finance director for more than 35 years, retired. Business owners and city and county officials neared agreement on traffic fixes for the congested, slow-moving portion of County Road 42 from County Road 5 west to Savage. New U.S. Census data placed Burnsvilleís population at 60,220 ó up nearly 9,000 from a decade earlier. Another 9,000 residents could be added by 2020 as parts of the city redevelop and as the few undeveloped parcels are built, said John Shardlow, Burnsvilleís planning consultant. City officials braced for state-aid cuts as the Legislature began addressing a $1.95 billion deficit. Cities were spared cuts this year, but much bigger cuts loom over 2003 now that the state deficit totals an estimated $4.56 billion. February The City Council suspended for a year the tobacco license of the SuperAmerica store at the southwest corner of Burnsville Parkway and County Road 5. The longest ever imposed in Minnesota, the suspension came after the store had been caught five times in 18 months selling tobacco to teen-age compliance checkers. A meeting between citizens who want to preserve Orchard Gardens Golf Course and city officials accelerated a campaign to save the course that continues today. The Burnsville Chamber of Commerce and other Minnesota chambers called for a gas-tax increase, which the Legislature didnít enact. A report by city-hired arts consultants said the 100,000 square-foot arts center envisioned by local arts groups would be too big and expensive. But the report urged groups to work with the would-be developer of a hotel and computer training center in the Heart of the City to provide arts space. SuperAmerica officials tried in vain at the Feb. 19 City Council meeting to get the council to reconsider its record-setting tobacco penalty. Liquor-store owners pleaded with the City Council Feb. 19 to reject ordinance changes that would lift restrictions on the number and locations of liquor stores in Burnsville. Joyce Clay, the former publisher of the Dakota County Tribune, the company that spawned Thisweek Newspapers, died at age 74. March SuperAmericaís parent company, Speedway SuperAmerica LLC, sought an injunction in Dakota County District Court overturning the one-year suspension of its tobacco license. The penalty took effect March 4. The court didnít grant the injunction. Carolyn Rodriguez, a Metropolitan Council representative whose district included Burnsville, died March 7 at age 58. Spirit Mountain Land Holding LLC unveiled plans for a $100 million hotel and computer training center complex in the Heart of the City. Other proposed features are a sculpture academy, a water park, restaurants, a nightclub and artistsí apartments. A redistricting map released by a state panel placed Reps. Dan McElroy and Ken Wolf in the same district, creating a re-election quandary for the two Republicans, who got their start together on the Burnsville City Council. The City Council failed on a 3-2 vote to change land-use designations for Burnsvilleís northwest industrial corner, also known as the Minnesota River quadrant. Robbie Nelson of Burnsville, a 1999 Burnsville High School graduate and U.S. Marine corporal, returned home from fighting the war on terrorism in Afghanistan. Dakota County District Judge Thomas Murphy upheld the City Councilís 2000 decision to not order an environmental impact statement for the proposed Black Dog Amphitheater. The City Council decided against changing off-sale liquor restrictions that would have increased the number of liquor stores allowed in Burnsville. Rep. Ken Wolf announced his plans to run for office in the newly created District 40A. Police seized more than 1,400 marijuana plans from a Burnsville warehouse that authorities said doubled as a phony art-supply business. David Schulteis of Eagan was charged in April with a second-degree controlled-substance crime. Speedway SuperAmerica LLC filed suit in federal court asking that its one-year license suspension for the store at Burnsville Parkway and County Road 5 be overturned. April Rep. Dan McElroy announced his candidacy for the House seat in District 40A, where redistricting pitted him against fellow Republican Rep. Ken Wolf. Waste Management Inc. announced plans to expand the Burnsville Sanitary Landfill, build an 18-hole golf course on landfill property and carve nature trails along the Minnesota River. The late U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., and Sen Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., pledged at an education forum at Burnsville High School to fight for full federal funding of special-education costs. Burnsville resident Bill Steele picketed some SuperAmerica locations in Burnsville to protest the store chainís tobacco lawsuit in federal court. He was joined by some health workers and anti-tobacco activists. The City Council voted to create a tax-increment financing district in the Heart of the City redevelopment district. Selling bonds to raise up to $18.5 million for infrastructure projects and developer subsidies could boost the districtís market value from $11 million to $213 million, officials said. A broken water pipe at Burnsville High School flooded the media center and left it off limits to students. The Rev. Donald Burns, the retired founding pastor of Mary, Mother of the Church in Burnsville, died April 17 at 76. Claiming to have outcampaigned his opponent, Rep. Ken Wolf defeated Rep. Dan McElroy in the Republican endorsement contest for the state House seat in District 40A. May Burnsvilleís long-awaited youth ballfield complex, Sue Fischer Memorial Park, opened for business. Rosella C. Ryan, the last member of the third generation of Burnsvilleís Irish settlers, died at age 90. The Burnsville Convention and Visitors Bureau marked its 15th anniversary this spring. Instead of heading for a primary showdown with his friend and Republican colleague Dan McElroy, state Rep. Ken Wolf was appointed to the position of ìenergy czarî in the Department of Commerce. He didnít seek re-election in the new House District 40A. Burnsville resident Jeanne Thomas, a retired teachersí union leader, was inducted into the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Womenís Hall of Fame. The Grand Market Place mixed-use development in the Heart of the City received final City Council approval. June The City Council approved the Dakota County Community Development Agencyís plans to build 34 rowhouses for low-income working families. The development will be in the Heart of the City. Bob Hawkins, a longtime member of the Burnsville Police Department, was sworn in as captain. He replaced Tom Kelley, who retired from a 32-year career in law enforcement. Burnsville resident Wayne Ellers, 48, filed a lawsuit claiming that his boyhood priest, the Rev. James Thoennes, abused him in the 1960s. Thoennes had already been removed from Catholic ministry after previous allegations surfaced. A team of engineers from Burnsville and Savage and Dakota and Scott counties put finishing touches on a plan to unclog traffic congestion on a 1.3-mile stretch of County Road 42. Barb Obershaw retired as president of the Burnsville Chamber of Commerce to become president of the TwinWest chamber. July City Council members Charlie Crichton and Steve Cherney continued to object to city staffís proposal to change land-use designations for Burnsvilleís industrial northwest river quadrant. The parent company of SuperAmerica dropped its federal lawsuit against the city after the parties reached a settlement in their tobacco-license dispute. Speedway SuperAmerica agreed to pay $67,500 to fund 40 percent of a two-year, city-run program to eliminate youth access to tobacco. The sale of tobacco resumed at the SuperAmerica store at Burnsville Parkway and County Road 5, whose license the city had suspended for a year after the store was caught five times selling cigarettes to minors. The City Council approved Waste Management Inc.ís request to expand its 147-acre landfill by 78 acres. Once full, the landfill will be covered and made into an 18-hole golf course. City Council Member Deborah Moran confirmed that she would not seek re-election after two terms in office. Burnsville historians made plans to bury a time capsule at the Ames Sculpture Plaza. The capsule, buried during Septemberís Fire Muster celebration, will be reopened in 2064. The Minnesota Department of Health blamed ìneglect of health careî by Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville for the death of a 37-year-old patient following hip-replacement surgery. Edward Kyllonen of Prior Lake died of potentially toxic levels of morphine, the departmentís Office of Health Facility Complaints said. To the chagrin of Orchard Gardens Golf Course preservationists, US Home unveiled plans for a 60-lot development on the property. August Daron Van Helden, a former public-affairs representative for Burnsville-based AAA Minnesota/Iowa, was named Burnsville Chamber of Commerce president. City Council members said emphatically at an Aug. 13 work session they want to preserve Orchard Gardens Golf Course, not allowing it to become a housing development. Birnamwood Golf Course, Burnsvilleís city-owned par-3, was designated an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary by the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary System. With no apparent City Council backing for its housing plan, which would have required a rezoning, US Home withdrew its proposal for 60 single-family lots on the Orchard Gardens Golf Course property. The City Council approved plans to replace Beaver Mountain Water Park and Mini Golf on Buck Hill Road with a bike and ski shop. Using a $70,000 Metropolitan Council grant, the city launched a study of ways to ìreuseî aging, obsolete strip malls. Michael Mundy of Savage, a 12-year-old member of the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District cross country team, died Aug. 28 while participating in a light workout with the team. September Churches and schools held observations on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. At Nicollet Junior High in Burnsville, firefighters, police officers and students gathered around the flagpole at 10 a.m. The City Council approved changes in its tobacco ordinance and a two-year ìbest-practicesî program to help stores prevent sales to minors. Ten candidates filed for election to two City Council seats. Lingering controversies over the Black Dog Amphitheater and the Heart of the City were on several candidatesí minds. October The Black Dog Amphitheater cleared possibly its last legal hurdle when Dakota County District Judge Thomas Murphy ruled that the Burnsville City Council acted lawfully in July 2000 when it approved an environmental assessment worksheet for the project. Opponents had wanted a more extensive environmental impact statement. The Bloomington City Council has authorized funding to appeal Murphyís ruling to the Minnesota Court of Appeals. Rollin Dennistoun of Burnsville, a former state agriculture official and past longtime member of the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School Board, died at age 84. Police said crime had risen in Burnsville in 2002, with more than half of those arrested coming from out of town. Burnsville resident Cheryl Lyn Thompson was suffocated Oct. 21 and her body dumped behind Destiny Christian Center, a church near her home. Brian Michael Batchelor, 19, a sometimes-neighbor of Thompsonís, has been indicted on first- and second-degree murder charges. He had allegedly talked of kidnapping Thompson when she returned from work, stealing her car and money and killing her. City officials chose Valley Ridge Shopping Center, Burnsvilleís oldest strip mall, and the nearby Parkway 5 Shoppes for its ìreuseî study of aging strip malls. The city also released a study showing that some older industrial-park properties are deteriorating. Burnsville City Manager Greg Konat accepted the job of Dakota County physical-development director. He left in December after working for the city for 20 years. Incumbent City Council Member Charlie Crichton was the top vote-getter in the 10-way race for two council seats. Also elected was Teresa Daly. Newly re-elected Rep. Dan McElroy was chosen by Gov.-elect Tim Pawlenty as his state finance commissioner. Four candidates ó Republican Duke Powell, DFLer Joe Rosenfield, Dan Kimmel of the Green Party and Charles Aldrich of the Libertarian Party ó have announced plans to run for the vacant District 40A House seat. The date of a special election hasnít been determined. The City Council approved land-use and zoning changes to pave the way for eventual redevelopment of Burnsvilleís industrial northwest river quadrant. Council Member Charlie Crichton cast the dissenting votes. Dakota County Area Resources and Transportation for Seniors launched a Web site for Burnsville senior citizens. December Appraisals and revenue projections for city ownership and operation of Orchard Gardens Golf Course showed it to be worth far less than the owners, Mel and Joanne Henry, were asking for the property. The information cast doubt on city preservation of the course, though the city will negotiate with the Henrys. City officials unveiled a legislative platform for the 2003 session in which they asked for state help in shouldering regional burdens such as wetland protection and heavy truck traffic. Developer Opus Northwest LLC revealed plans for a mixed-use development, including a grocery store and townhomes, on the vacant Kmart property on East Travelers Trail. Glenn McKee, the owner of two Games by James stores and a former Burnsville City Council member, was named 2002 Business Person of the Year by the Burnsville Chamber of Commerce. Bids were awarded for Nicollet Commons Park, which is touted as the centerpiece of the Heart of the City. © Thisweek Newspapers |
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